(shǎ): foolish

(shǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “foolish.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #1962 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a man 亻 being hit 夂 on the head 囟. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. foolish

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA man 亻 being hit 夂 on the head 囟

Decomposition: ⿰亻⿳囟八夂 (layout: left-right)

Components:structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shǎ guāidiot
shǎ ziidiot
zhuāng shǎto act stupid
shǎ xiàoto giggle
shǎ huàfoolish talk
shǎ hū hūfeeble-minded
shǎ qìfoolish
shǎ yǎn(coll.) stunned
zhuāng fēng mài shǎto play the fool (idiom)
shǎ li shǎ qìfoolish
shǎ guā xiàng jīpoint-and-shoot camera
dāi shǎstupid
shǎ dà gè rstupid great hulk of a man
shǎ dà gèidiot
shǎ rén yǒu shǎ fúfortune favors fools (idiom)
36
Total compounds
78
As first character
19
As last character
3
As middle character

appears in 36 compound words: 78 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 3 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

guā
0.6689,816 co-occurrences
lèng
0.50884 co-occurrences
hān
0.457162 co-occurrences
dāi
0.444288 co-occurrences
chī
0.431312 co-occurrences
fēng
0.424210 co-occurrences
bèn
0.415228 co-occurrences
xiào
0.398786 co-occurrences
yàn
0.397162 co-occurrences
0.396474 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

shǎguā xiàngjīHSK 5+

point-and-shoot camera

noun
shǎlishǎqìHSK 5+

synonym of 傻氣 /傻气 (shǎqì)

adjective
shǎ tóu shǎ nǎoHSK 5+

(idiom) stupid; muddle-headed

phrase
zhuāngfēngmàishǎHSK 5+

to behave wildly; to feign madness

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

瓜做事,不计后果。

Shǎguā zuò shì, bù jì hòuguǒ.

Fools act without considering consequences.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...画 舔毛后竟判若两猫?崩坏反差让网民全看

. . . huà tiǎn máo hòu jìng pàn ruò liǎng māo ? bēng huài fǎn chā ràng wǎng mín quán kàn shǎ

... Draw after licking the fur, it is judged like two cats? The contrast of the collapse made netizens look stupid

中時新聞網Feb 2026

3分钟1吸菸区? 她眼呛吴欣岱:逼大家3分钟就吸一口二手菸

3 fēn zhōng 1 xī 菸 qū ? tā shǎ yǎn qiàng wú xīn 岱 : bī dà jiā 3 fēn zhōng jiù xī yī kǒu èr shǒu 菸

3 minutes 1 smoking area? She was dumbfounded and choked Wu Xindai: Forcing everyone to take a puff of second-hand smoke in 3 minutes

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

钱”成美股关键力量!散户交易规模冲5.4...

shǎ qián chéng měi gǔ guān jiàn lì liàng ! sàn hù jiāo yì guī mó chōng 5 . 4 . . .

"Stupid money" has become a key force in U.S. stocks! The scale of retail trading rushed by 5.4...

NewsFeb 2026

烟仔虎与烟仔分不清?曹铭宗抓包转运站画错、口感大不...

yān zǐ hǔ yǔ yān zǐ shǎ shǎ fēn bù qīng ? cáo míng zōng zhuā bāo zhuǎn yùn zhàn huà cuò kǒu gǎn dà bù . . .

Can't tell the difference between a smoker and a smoker? Cao Mingzong's bag transfer station is wrong, and the taste is not big...

TvbsFeb 2026

...NBA球場邊「呼呼大睡」被抓包! 李多慧眼偷拍

. . . qiú 場 邊 hū hū dà shuì bèi zhuā bāo ! lǐ duō huì shǎ yǎn tōu pāi

...Caught napping on the sidelines of an NBA game! Lee Do-hee stunned by the sneak shot.

Tatoeba

她打扮得妖里妖气,一副样!

Tā dǎban de yāoli-yāoqì, yī fù shǎ yàng!

She dresses so outrageously; it looks completely ridiculous!

Tatoeba

汤姆得难以置信。

Tāngmǔ shǎ de nányǐzhìxìn.

Tom is unbelievably stupid.

Tatoeba

他妈的,哪个子敢在半夜打我电话?!

Tāmāde, nǎge shǎzi gǎn zài bànyè dǎ wǒ diànhuà?!

Fucking hell, what idiot dare phone me in the middle of the night?

Tatoeba

你是不是吸毒吸了?

Nǐ shìbùshì xīdú xī shǎ le?

Do you have a drug problem?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shǎ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 傻 (shǎ) mean in Chinese?
傻 (shǎ) primarily means "foolish." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1962 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 傻 have?
傻 is written with 13 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 傻?
The radical associated with 傻 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 傻?
傻 is composed of: 亻 (structural), undefined (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻⿳囟八夂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 傻?
Common words with 傻 include: 傻瓜 (shǎ guā, "idiot"); 傻子 (shǎ zi, "idiot"); 装傻 (zhuāng shǎ, "to act stupid"); 傻笑 (shǎ xiào, "to giggle"); 傻话 (shǎ huà, "foolish talk"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 傻 (shǎ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shǎ: 杀 (to kill), 沙 (granule), 纱 (cotton yarn), 砂 (sand), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 傻 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 傻 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.